Barking Spiders

Then again, there are many tunes where the basslines are just a bit too rudimentary or minimalist and could've done with a bit more to have made the songs work better. Essentially I'm referring to those songs where the bassist just holds down the bottom end with root 8ths or 16ths, occasionally throwing in a couple of other notes, especially where the guitar work isn't exactly dynamic and all the melody is in the vocals. It's a fine line between being effectively sparse and unimaginative or incapable.

Not for me I'm afraid. Tight and played well enough but somewhat anonymous

Thought there've been a fair few over the years although we could argue the toss about the singing bit. Anyway, what about these, starting for ten: Paul McCartney, Sting, Mark King, Phil Lynott, Geddy Lee, Les Claypool, Larry Graham, Bootsy Collins, Troy Sanders, Lemmy, Jack Bruce, Greg Lake, Roger Waters, Tom Araya,

+1 here too. cracking bass line, as is this one ...

The thread on sparse bass lines and specific references to Walking On The Moon got me thinking for a few seconds about why the minimalist flanged guitar in that song is also so effective, while 40 minute blues rock w*nkathons or interminable 'neo-classical' metal widdling have me running screaming for the door. So if there's a Malmsteen wannabe in your band what songs would you suggest they listen to that show less is usually more. A couple that come to my mind are on Chris Isaak's Wicked Game and Blue Hotel and on I'm In Love With A German Film Star by The Passions.

Aye it's just about hanging in there. The owner died not long ago and his wife has taken it over but I get the impression trading's tough. Soundhouse was good but they closed down to focus on the Gloucester store.

well, a cr@p music shop is better than no music shop. I used to live in Cheltenham (still work there) and 10 years ago there were four music shops; two proper guitar shops, one selling small budget /school instruments and one selling pianos and acoustic instruments. Three are now gone and the one that's left has much reduced stock and is just about hanging on in there. It's them bluddy rents and rates wot dunnit. At least Gloucester still has two pretty good guitar shops.

ah..wrong topic. i was looking for medical

Sure thing. You don't hear people being 'impressed' in a similar way if a woman plays a piano or a violin virtuosically. In some quarters electric guitars, basses and drums are thought of as male instruments. Fook knows why. Back to female bassists, there are a good number of mostly male bands where the bass player was a woman e.g. Talking Heads, Pixies (had three bassists..all women), Adverts, Smashing Pumpkins (who had four! though not all at once) , Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, Dandy Warhols, Sisters of Mercy,. And then there are the all /mostly female bands of which there are too many to name.

Although a bass guitar's not used, for me the most effective minimal bassline is on Leftfield's Phat Planet. Just two notes!

A very underrated player and capable of much more than the VHs allowed. By all accounts they weren't the easiest guys to get on with if you weren't family, as DLR, Sammy Hagar and MA might testify

Not that I like the song much but the simple bass in Argent's Hold Your Head Up is really effective

My OP is more about musical instruments in general rather than bass in particular and how non-players are really only impressed if you play something they know, however, simple, and not stuff they don't know, however demanding. The brains of players and non-musicians seem quite different in this respect

yep I get that, not only do I have instruments around the house ready for emergency noodling at a moment's notice, my nearly-missus wants me to put them on the walls, guitar shop stylee. She finds them very pleasing to look at. The previous mrs Spiders would banish all my instruments to my shed even the smallest pair of bongos!

Usually when people see a bass, guitar whatever lying around my gaff or hear from someone that I play they wanna hear what I can do. I tend to find that peeps who don't play instruments tend to be quite impressed when i reel off a few pretty simple albeit effective and famous basslines like Another One Bites The Dust, Peaches, The Chain, Money, Dancing In the Moonlight. They don't seem to be as pleased if I play summat more demanding but much less recognisable fr'instance Tommy The Cat by Primus. Anyone else find this?

I've no particular beef with BM but he's just another product off the pop conveyor , although probably better than many . It is a bit of a shame that acts like him doing pastiches of swing, funk, Motown etc raking it in while those with some semblance of originality are scraping a living together. Unfortunately the same applies to every area of entertainment. Michael Macintyre, 50 Shades of Grey, X Factor, films about goblins etc. Toot sells.

ya know you can slow down You Tube vids. That's what I do when learning trickier, faster lines or techniques.

Yep, add me to this list. I'm hard pressed to think of a worse way of spending an evening. Blues rock is tedious at the best of times (for me anyway) but endless 12 bar blues jams with Alvin Lee/SRV wannabees reeling off hackneyed licks makes me ill

The thing about bass tone it is probably the thing that can give bassists a trademark style, more so than technique . Think about the likes of Mick Karn in Japan, JJ Burnel, Peter Hook, Steve Harris, Pino P (on fretless),

Glad to be of some use here . Sulk of course is a great example of upfront bass played with a pick the key tracks being Club Country, Party Fears Two and Skipping. Not much stuff on YT but there's one guy doing a pretty good Club Country. Lexicon - seems to be underrated as bass album but I cant think of one track that doesn't have a memorable bassline. Same goes for New Gold Dream. As for No Parlez, the standout tracks are the ones with Pino's fretless i.e. Wherever, Come Back and Stay, the title track, Women and Sex (those are two separate tracks, not just one!)

What about the balding bloke with a tache in Saxon playing open notes with one hand while punching the air with his fretting hand or errm non-fretting hand ? Marc S - dunno about you but I generally lost interest in The Stranglers once JJ switched over to a more conventional tone about 5 albums or so in when the band started getting older and softer Other albums for me where the bass tone makes them are New Gold Dream by Simple Minds, Sulk by The Associates, Lexicon of Love by ABC and No Parlez by Paul Young. Imagine Wherever I Lay My Hat played with the bass relegated to the background. It might've been long forgotten . Everyone remembers the bass rather than the vocal

Check out my thread here on online bass tutors. I've listed several I really rate as being excellent . Top players, a methodical approach, clear explanations, good delivery with a lightness of touch and some humour. Tune into their lessons on YT or via their websites and you'll get back on track

As a music listener tone is #1 for me whatever the instrument. I got into bass after hearing JJ Burnel on Rattus Norvegicus . It wasn't the notes he played but the tone that grabbed me. On the other hand I hate Steve Harris' tone, one of several things that puts me off Iron Maiden. My ladee and non-playing friends of mine into music are very much aware of the bass tone. They may not know what's making the noise but they notice it.

I've only ever played in funk, hip hop oriented and other types of dance music bands so I've never come across any snotty attitude from other players as they know it's the rhythm section wot drives the tunes

Scott's Bass Lessons often gets namechecked on here but what about some others that you might use. Others I tend to use a fair bit are John Fossgreen's Bass Lessons for Humans Mark Smith at Talking Bass and a couple of newer ones to me Davey Pollitt at Cambridge bass lessons and Remco Hendriks at Remco's Groove Lab - he does some really nice funky fretless stuff Then again mebbe you avoid online bass tutors like the plague, who knows?. As for m'self I'm looking to improve every day and I can't find much better way of doing it than learning from these guys